28 PROGRESS OF BOTANY 



volumes, extending as far as the class Monadelphia, inclusive. The 

 residue does not appear to have been published. 



In 1827, Thomas Nuttall, Esq., published at Cambridge, 

 Mass., an Introduction to Systematic and Physiological Botany, 

 which was -well adapted to the -wants of that day. 



In 1829, Sir William Jackson Hooker, then Professor of 

 Botany at Glasgow", Scotland, now Superintendent of the Royal 

 Botanic Gardens at Kew, near London, commenced the publica- 

 tion of his magnificent "work, entitled Flora Boreali-Americana, 

 or the Botany of the Northern parts of British America. It was 

 published in numbers or portions, and was not completed until 

 1840 ; but it now stands, with its 288 quarto plates, a splendid 

 monument of the scientific attainments, artistic skill, and untiring 

 perseverance of its accomplished author. Sir William has con- 

 tributed largely to the knowledge of the plants of the United 

 States, including Texas,* by the agency of his collectors, Messrs. 

 Douglas, Drtjmmond, and others, who have very extensively ex- 

 plored the vegetation of this continent. 



We have, moreover, been much indebted to the labours and 

 researches of Menzies, Fraser, Lyon, Bradbury, Scouler, 

 Richardson, and other travelling investigators of North American 

 Botany. 



Our estimable countryman, Doctor F. Boott now a resident 

 of London has also done much towards illustrating American 

 Botany, by his researches and publications; and has rendered most 

 important aid to the botanists of the United States, by his kind 

 attentions and services, in comparing our plants with the authentic 

 specimens contained in the Herbaria of the early collectors, in 

 England. 



In 1830, Dr. J. A. Breretox, of Washington City, published 

 a catalogue of the plants of that District, under the title of Pro- 

 dromus Floras Columbiauce : and soon afterwards, Prof. C. W. 

 Short, of Kentucky, commenced the publication, in a Western 



* As an evidence of the far-seeing sagacity with which that gentleman re- 

 garded our national career and tendencies, it may be permitted here to make 

 an extract from a letter to the writer of this, which accompanied a large remit- 

 tance of botanical specimens. The letter was dated as long ago as Dec. 28, 1835, 

 and the passage referred to, is as follows : " I had promised you some Southern 

 plants of your vast Northern Continent, and I thought I could not do better 

 than select from those of Texas, as affording a vegetation considerably different 

 from that of the United States, and which will probably form a part of your country." 



